{"id":258689,"date":"2021-12-11T15:42:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T21:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=258689"},"modified":"2021-12-13T13:01:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T19:01:44","slug":"billie-jean-king-tennis-women-abortion-succeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/billie-jean-king-tennis-women-abortion-succeed\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite evidence to the contrary, tennis legend Billie Jean King says women need abortion to succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

With the Supreme Court poised to potentially overturn or redefine Roe v. Wade<\/em>\u00a0based on the\u00a0Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> case centering on Mississippi’s protections for 15-week preborn children,\u00a0many abortion supporters are insisting that such a decision would negatively impact women, impeding their ability to control their lives.\u00a0Former tennis player Billie Jean King is one such woman, who shared her abortion story in a recent Washington Post op-ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own experience obtaining a legal abortion, two years before the landmark Roe v. Wade<\/em> decision, illustrates why we must never roll back our hard-won reproductive rights,\u201d King wrote.\u00a0\u201cIn early 1971, I became pregnant. It was unexpected. I was 27 years old and the top-ranked women\u2019s tennis player in the world. I was on the road constantly to help launch the world\u2019s first professional all-women\u2019s tour. In fact, I learned I was pregnant after almost throwing up on court during a match.\u201d<\/p>\n

King also revealed that while she and her husband were still together, their marriage at the time was \u201cshaky.\u201d Her husband did not try to dissuade her from having an abortion.\u00a0\u201cWe agreed that a woman had the right to decide if and when she wanted to be pregnant. He said he would support whatever choice I made,\u201d the athlete wrote.<\/p>\n

READ: Female athletes say they faced pressure to have an abortion: \u2018It seemed like no choice at all\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

King admitted, however, that career concerns were not the sole reason for her abortion, acknowledging that tennis champion Margaret Court<\/a>\u00a0had taken time off for pregnancy and childbirth, which did not hinder her success. Other athletes, like runner Sarah Brown<\/a> and volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings<\/a>, still managed to achieve their dreams while also realizing new goals after the arrival of their children. Even Olympians<\/a> like USA track and field competitors Alysia Monta\u00f1o and Allyson Felix, as well as USA basketball player Skylar Diggins-Smith, have become mothers and have told of the positive impact it has had on their lives.<\/p>\n

Other athletes, like track and field star Sanya Richards Ross, say they felt coerced into abortions<\/a> for the sake of saving their athletic careers.<\/p>\n

As for King, she said her and her husband\u2019s \u201clives were so complicated and unpredictable that I couldn\u2019t imagine bringing up a child in such chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

King believes she was \u201cfortunate\u201d to live in California, where abortion was legal at the time, and expressed concern that women might not be able to have abortions like she did. Citing her dedication to ensuring \u201cequality for all,\u201d King then claimed that \u201c[n]othing did more to advance women\u2019s economic status than the right to abortion that came with Roe<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The athlete later wrote that Roe\u2019s<\/em> central premise \u201cis about women\u2019s right to make fundamental decisions about their lives, futures and families. If we lose the ability to control our bodies and our futures, so many of the gains women have made will be undone. At stake are not only indignities and inequities but the rights to self-determination and equal opportunity that would fall along with Roe<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Missing from these professions about equality and bodily autonomy is any acknowledgement that abortion does not simply allow a woman control over her own body but destroys the body of another separate and distinct human being whose right to life, bodily autonomy, and future are entirely disregarded. An abortion does not simply end a woman’s pregnancy; it ends the life of a human being<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While it is heartbreaking for any woman like King to find herself considering abortion, the solution in difficult pregnancy circumstances is for society to offer real help for\u00a0women<\/a> instead of proposing the death of their offspring through abortion as a viable solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Supreme Court poised to potentially overturn or redefine Roe v. Wade\u00a0based on the\u00a0Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization case centering on Mississippi’s protections for 15-week preborn children,\u00a0many abortion supporters are insisting that such a decision would negatively impact women, impeding their ability to control their lives.\u00a0Former tennis player Billie Jean King is one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":617,"featured_media":258728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3473],"tags":[19,14641,11345,14643,14642,14644,14640],"yoast_head":"\nDespite evidence to the contrary, tennis legend Billie Jean King says women need abortion to succeed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Abortion is necessary for women to be successful, according to tennis star Billie Jean King, who shared her own abortion story recently.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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